Other Voices: Citizens should monitor Fort Monroe planning process

The Army doesn't leave Fort Monroe until 2011, but anyone who wants the best for that national treasure should pay close attention right now.

In March, a new state law placed me onto a brand-new, 18-person Fort Monroe planning panel. At the first meeting, it turned out that a lot had already been decided behind the scenes.

Gov. Tim Kaine's administration and Hampton's City Council have the actual control. The meeting organizers demanded on-the-spot approval of a lengthy governing document - spelling out the agreement between the state, the city and the planning group - that they hadn't distributed beforehand.

Ever heard of a pig in a poke? We were being told to buy something sight unseen.

The document is important because the planning process is crucial. That's obviously why Hampton fired two of its seven panel appointees - they went against Hampton's behind-the-scenes intentions about the planning process.

To me, that sudden firing seems revealing. Things are happening behind the scenes. Are those things fishy, or even worse? I don't know. I just know we all need to pay close attention.

Here's another reason to pay attention. I'd call this one "shouting news."

On May 24, APVA Preservation Virginia - the statewide preservation organization that administers Historic Jamestowne with the National Park Service - listed Fort Monroe among 11 "Most Endangered Historic Sites in Virginia for 2007."

Disposition? That governing document talks about "property disposition." It would allow "disposition directly to third parties."

What third parties? Behind the scenes, is there some plan for pieces of Fort Monroe, like maybe the marina, to be sold off in a rush?

These are decisions about land that has been publicly owned for four centuries. The decisions will last for centuries more. Haste and closed doors are dangerous.

Here's another reason to pay attention: The Civil Rights War Preservation Trust, the largest organization dedicated to preserving Civil War sites, recently declared Fort Monroe at risk.

Here's another one: Last summer, working with out-of-state consultants and against the public's wishes, Hampton developed plans to overdevelop Fort Monroe with upscale houses. Even though the plan was widely discredited, Hampton recently dredged it up and insisted on it again.

In a written statement, Hampton even insisted, emphatically, that the public actually requested those houses.?

Hampton submitted the statement in a meeting convened by the Army, Hampton's close partner. The Army excluded the press from the meeting.

Another reason to pay attention is all this clamor for early environmental cleanup, before we even really know what the contamination is, or what future we see for Fort Monroe. Everyone wants it cleaned up economically, but is this rush for early cleanup really just a rush to start private development?

I hope we study every option seriously. I'm glad the new state law that established the new planning group asks for study of the national park possibility.

I appreciate that this whole challenge is complicated and that lots of people are working hard on it. I'm not claiming I have all the answers.

But nobody else has all the answers, either.

That's why we need an open, honest process where special interests and behind-the-scenes interests have no more claim on Fort Monroe than you and I have.

I'm worried that's not what we're getting. Bylaws proposed for the planning panel say that meeting agendas need not be made public.

They call for centralizing power in a small executive committee. They call for subcommittees to deal with "lease, acquisition, and sale" of real estate and with "all matters relating to the marketing of real property."

They don't tell how the public can monitor subcommittee work. And as far as I know, these bylaws have not been made public.

I urge concerned citizens to contact politicians, civic leaders, journalists and opinion leaders to make clear that this national treasure must be handled openly and handled right.

Gear represents the 91st District in Virginia's House of Delegates. The district includes Poquoson a parts of the city of Hampton and York County.